1 Kings chapter 10
Today we are walking in: Producing A Kingdom Community
Numbers 24:7
He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. BEMIDBAR (NUMBERS) 24:7 ×ת CEPHER
KINGDOM
Today we look to the word-KINGDOM- H4467 mamlâkâh, (mam-law-kaw') -dominion, (abstractly) the estate (rule) or (concretely) the country (realm):—kingdom, king's, reign, royal
The Torah testifies...............
Exodus 19:6
And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Yashar'el. SHEMOTH (EXODUS) 19:6 ×ת CEPHER
Numbers 32:33
And Mosheh gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Re'uven, and unto half the tribe of Menashsheh the son of Yoceph, the kingdom of Ciychon king of the Emoriym, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about. BEMIDBAR (NUMBERS) 32:33 ×ת CEPHER
Deuteronomy 17:18
And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this Torah in a cepher out of that which is before the priests the Leviyiym: DEVARIYM (DEUTERONOMY) 17:18 ×ת CEPHER
The prophets proclaim..................
1 Samuel 10:18
And said unto the children of Yashar'el, Thus says Yahuah Elohai of Yashar'el, I brought up Yashar'el out of Mitsrayim, and delivered you out of the hand of the Mitsriym, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you: SHEMU'EL RI'SHON (1 SAMUEL) 10:18 ×ת CEPHER
Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of Yahuah Tseva'oth will perform this. YESHA'YAHU (ISAIAH) 9:7 ×ת CEPHER
Jeremiah 18:9
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; YIRMEYAHU (JEREMIAH) 18:9 ×ת CEPHER
The writings bear witness...........................
1 Kings 9:5
Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom upon Yashar'el forever, as I promised to David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man upon the throne of Yashar'el. MELEKIYM RI'SHON (1 KINGS) 9:5 ×ת CEPHER
1 Chronicles 17:11
And it shall come to pass, when your days be expired that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you, which shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. DIVREI HAYAMIYM RI'SHON (1 CHRONICLES) 17:11 ×ת CEPHER
Psalm 145:13
Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. Yahuah is true in his word, and holy in all his works. TEHILLIYM (PSALMS) 145:13 ×ת CEPHER
Chapter Eight
PRODUCING A KINGDOM COMMUNITY
I HAVE a dream that before I die I will see and be part of a dynamic, growing community of people among whom there is no sickness, no poverty, and no want. Everyone will be debt- free. Depression, worry, and despair will be unknown; every marriage will be strong, successful, and happy; and all the children will respect their parents and live completely free of fear. The entire community will worship the Most High in perfect unity and harmony and with a single common vision.
People from outside will be amazed at what they see. “Do you mean that out of these 50,000 people, nobody is divorced? Why not?”
“Because in our community we don’t believe in that. We believe in fixing things up, in repenting, reconciling, and forgiving. That’s our nature, our culture.”
“Do you mean to tell me that among these 200,000 people there is no incest, no fathers sleeping with their daughters? How can this be?”
“Because in our community such a thing is detestable. We love our children. They are made in Yah’s image, and we care for and protect them. That’s our culture.”
“Do you mean to tell me that out of half a million people, nobody tells lies?”
“It’s true. Lying is unheard of in our community. Truth is our currency. In our community, truth is not the best policy—it is the only policy.”
I dream of the day when this will be reality. Fantasy, you say? Utopia? No, simply Kingdom culture in action.
It is just this kind of community that everyone on Earth secretly longs for. And it is this longing that fuels so many people’s desires to leave this world, because they have heard that Heaven is this kind of community. Most of us carry this dream around with us every day. We dream of Heaven because we can’t find the community we want here on Earth. You can’t wait to get to Heaven because you just got divorced and you hurt so much. You want to go to a place where the hurt is gone. You long for Heaven because your husband just beat you again, and you want to escape to a place where you are always safe. You cry out for Heaven because your uncle molested you for years when you were a child, and now the guilt and shame are so great that you want to go someplace where these things don’t happen and where you can be healed. You pray for Heaven because life on Earth is hell.
Yahusha says, gently and lovingly, “That’s the wrong prayer. Don’t pray to go to Heaven; pray for Heaven to come down. Pray, ‘Father, let Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.’” He wants Heaven to happen here. We don’t have to die to experience Heaven. Yahusha said, “Ask for it, and I’ll give it to you, here and now.”
The possibility of Heaven on Earth is a difficult concept for most of us to grasp because we have been so thoroughly indoctrinated into the culture of this world, where lying is normal, stealing is a habit, adultery is accepted, and sweethearting is still a norm. We have to break that old mindset and be cultured all over again into the heart and mind of Yah and into the mindset of a Kingdom community.
Yah’s purpose has always been to build a heavenly community on Earth, a community that would reflect in the physical realm the values, principles, standards, morals, and holy and righteous character of His Kingdom in the spiritual realm. The word community comes from the words “common” and “unity” and refers to a group of people who share a common language, food, dress, lifestyle, customs, values, and morals. Yah wants to build His people into a heavenly community on Earth that so reflects Him that anyone from outside who meets us will know immediately that we are not of this Earth. We are in the world but not of the world.
Our assignment as Kingdom citizens and ambassadors is to learn and then to teach others how to apply the Kingdom to business and bodily health; to single life, marriage, and parenting; to investments and speech; to relationships and professions; to government and media. We have to reintroduce the precepts of the Kingdom of Heaven: the values, morals, principles, and standards by which our society is supposed to live. Yah’s plan, then, is not—and never has been—to establish a religious institution, but to build a living, breathing, and thriving community that reveals to the world what He is like as well as the quality of life under His government.
REFLECTED GLORY
The purpose behind a Kingdom community is to reflect the greatness and glory of the King. Citizens of the community are under the rule of the King and come to manifest His nature. In other words, the people take on the characteristics of the King, display the qualities of the King, and exhibit the culture of the King. As a matter of fact, the quality and nature of any kingdom can be recognized first not by the presence of the king but by the lifestyle of his citizens. Seeing how the people in a kingdom live reveals a great deal about their king.
That’s how kingdoms work. Kingdoms are manifested in the culture of the people. So the quality of the community is a manifestation or reflection of the quality of the king. This truth is taught throughout Scripture, but no more clearly perhaps than in the account of the queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon. Although known best for his legendary wisdom, Solomon was also the greatest, richest, and most powerful king of his day. Having succeeded his father David, who had built the kingdom of Israel into a great power, Solomon expanded his kingdom’s greatness and glory even more. At no time in its history was Israel bigger, richer, or more powerful than under Solomon’s reign.
Solomon’s reputation was so great that even the queen of Sheba, way down in her African domain, heard of it. She immediately decided to visit Solomon and see for herself.
AND when the Queen of Sheva heard of the fame of Shalomah concerning the name of Yahuah, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Yerushalayim with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to El-Shalomah, she communed with him of את all that was in her heart. And Shalomah told her all her questions: there was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not. And when the Queen of Sheva had seen את all Shalomah's wisdom, and the house that he had built, And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of Yahuah; there was no more ruach in her. And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts and of your wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and my eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: your wisdom and prosperity exceeds the fame which I heard. MELEKIYM RI'SHON (1 KINGS) 10:1-7 את CEPHER.
The queen of Sheba was a rich and powerful monarch in her own right, but everything she had and had always known paled in comparison to the splendor of Solomon’s court. There was no sign of poverty anywhere in the land, because the citizens of Solomon’s kingdom reflected in their lives and circumstances the splendor and wealth of Solomon himself. The rest of First Kings chapter 10 goes into a detailed description of the extent and glory of Solomon’s kingdom. So King Shalomah exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. MELEKIYM RI'SHON (1 KINGS) 10:23 את CEPHER, so rich, in fact, that he “And the king made silver to be in Yerushalayim as stones, and את cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the valley, for abundance. MELEKIYM RI'SHON (1 KINGS) 10:27 את CEPHER.
Prosperity was everywhere. Can you imagine the housekeeper wearing silk or the household servants eating off of gold plates? This is the way kingdoms manifest. A wise and conscientious king makes sure that his citizens prosper because he knows that his reputation and the glory of his rule rest on the quality of their lives.
In the 21st chapter of the Book of Revelation, John describes the New Jerusalem, the city of the King, as having a wall of jasper with the wall’s foundations adorned with 12 kinds of precious stones (see verses 18-20). The city itself and its great street were made of pure gold. My point is this: The idea of earthly kings extravagantly displaying their wealth and splendor originated with Yah. Likewise, the splendor and glory of Yah’s Kingdom will be reflected in the lives and circumstances of His citizens.
We have to change our mindset and learn to think like royalty. We must learn to see things from our King’s perspective. Once my wife and I visited Buckingham Palace in London. Beginning with the lush gardens, everything about the place spoke of riches, dignity, honor, glory, and splendor. We walked into an entry foyer larger and more extravagant than the lobbies of the finest hotels in the world. The walls and ceiling were painted with gold leaf. You and I use latexpaint on our walls, but the palace was painted in gold. Why would someone put gold all over the walls? To display to all visitors the splendor and glory of those who live there, even if they are never seen.
Buckingham Palace had a crystal chandelier larger than my living room. In a kingdom it is never necessary to talk or preach about prosperity because prosperity is all around. Prince William grew up looking at that chandelier. That is why his mentality is different from ours. You and I grew up under the illumination of Sylvania Blue Dot light bulbs. How could we talk with him about wealth? When you are born into wealth, you don’t talk about wealth. Yah’s ultimate goal is to bring that kind of life to Earth.
It is for this reason that Yahusha taught us to pray to the Father, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Every other prayer we pray should be tempered by this one request: that Yah’s heavenly Kingdom come on Earth. When we pray for the Kingdom, our prayer encompasses all we could ever need or desire, because with the Kingdom comes access to all the resources of Heaven. This is why Yahusha also told us not to worry about what we would eat, drink, or wear, or about any other thing, but to seek first the Kingdom and righteousness of Yah, for with the Kingdom comes everything else (see Matt. 6:33). Our future is tied up in the culture of the King. Therefore our prayer should be, “Most High, let Your Kingdom be manifested in us. Make us into a community that represents Your country and Your culture. May our common unity be a reflection of Your glory to a watching world.”
COMMON UNITY
As I said earlier, the word community is a compound of the words “common” and “unity.” So even the derivation of the word community gives us a clue to its meaning: a group of people united by common bonds. More specifically, a community is a group of people distinguished and unified by a common set of values, standards, beliefs, norms, language, customs, traditions, ideals, and commitment to a common purpose.
Chinatown is a community. Its inhabitants are united by the common bond of their Chinese heritage and culture, which they keep vibrantly alive. Chinatown could never exist with only one or two, or even a handful of Chinese. Maintaining a distinct cultural identity requires a large number of people of similar background working together in a common purpose. In Los Angeles, the population of Chinatown is around 500,000 people. They speak their own language, worship in their own temples, operate their own businesses, and maintain their own distinctive cuisine. Theirs is an unmistakably unique community, a “garden” of China within the United States.
Kingdom communities, wherever they are in the world, should be just as unique and distinctive. Our values, standards, beliefs, norms, language, customs, traditions, and ideals should set us apart from the rest of the world. People who walk into our community should feel like they have stepped into Heaven.
This is one reason why I have such a big problem with “religious” Christianity. Religion can never take the place of the Kingdom. Although it may try to mimic Kingdom characteristics on the outside, it is only a shallow and empty facade. Whenever I walk into Chinatown, I feel like I am in China. When I walk into Haitian Town, I feel like I am in Haiti. Miami’s Cuban district makes me think I have somehow stepped into Havana. Whenever I walk into religious Christianity, however, I feel like I am in hell: cursing, gossiping, backbiting, lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, divorce, homosexuality, legalism, prejudice, self-righteousness, infighting, bickering—a real mess.
Religious Christianity looks nothing like Heaven. There is no unity, no common vision, no community. On the contrary, divisions abound, and each group is proud of its own exclusiveness. They divide and fight over doctrinal differences, theological differences, modes of baptism, spiritual gifts, theories of the end times, worship styles, worship music, biblical interpretation, and even about whether Saturday or Sunday is the “proper” worship day. Amidst such squabbling, how can there be community? I have a dream that before I die, there will be a group of people on Earth who finally get the message that the Kingdom of Heaven is bigger than our differences and broader than our denominations.
A Kingdom community is a group of Kingdom citizens who are unified by a common set of values—the King’s values. They share the King’s standards and beliefs and live according to the King’s norms. They speak the language of the King, which is the language of love. In addition, they follow the customs and traditions of the King. They forgive one another. They love their enemies. They do good to those who mistreat them. They never engage in slander or gossip. They are honest in all their dealings and always keep their word. They respect the dignity of all people and hold all people in high regard as precious creatures made in Yah’s image. They love Yah with all their heart and they love and honor His Word.
They also are committed to the King’s ideals, meaning that they share a common ideology, or philosophy, with the King. In other words, they think like the King and share the same mindset. This is a learning process of growth and maturity, because none of us naturally think the way Yah does:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says Yahuah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. YESHA'YAHU (ISAIAH) 55:8-9 את CEPHER.
In a Kingdom community, all the citizens are learning to submit their minds and thoughts to the King so that they can learn to see as He sees, think as He thinks, and do as He does.
Finally, a Kingdom community is committed to a common purpose and vision—those of the King. A common vision brings a community into unity and helps guarantee its survival, because without vision a community will perish (see Prov. 29:18 KJV). And what is the King’s vision? It is very simple: His Kingdom come and His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Yah’s vision—His big idea—is Heaven coming to Earth. He sees it. Can you see it?
Can you see Heaven’s culture coming to Earth? Can you imagine a community where every husband loves his wife the way Hamachiach loves His Church, and treats her like the queen she is? Can you imagine a community where every wife honors, respects, and builds up her husband? Can you imagine a community where husbands and wives are absolutely faithful to each other and where adultery or sweethearting is inconceivable? Can you imagine a community where all the children honor and obey their parents and show respect to all legitimate authority? Can you imagine a community where people’s word is their bond and where honesty is the common currency? Can you imagine a community where there is no cursing or gambling, no greed or thievery, no envy or jealousy, no backbiting or backstabbing, no petty bickering or quarreling, and no lust or sexual immorality? Can you imagine a community where there is no poverty or want, but abundant peace and contentment? Can you imagine it? Yah can, and this is the type of community He wants to fill the Earth with.
TAKE A LESSON FROM THE HEBREWS
If there is any group of people on Earth who understand the power of community, it is the Hebrews. Through 4,000 years of war and conquest, peace and prosperity, persecution and prejudice, and triumph and tragedy, the Hebrews have maintained a distinct cultural identity as a people. This is due in large part to the fact that they identify themselves not only as individuals but also as interdependent members of a larger community.
The first five books of the Bible are political books, not religious treatises. They explain how Yah’s purpose for delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt was to transform them into a nation through whom He would bless the world, just as He had promised Abraham (see Gen. 12:1-3). According to Yah’s plan they would be a distinct people, separate from the other nations of the world in their worship, their laws, their morality, their diet, their code of conduct, and their everyday lifestyle. The distinguishing characteristic that would set them apart from other peoples would be Yah’s active and continuing presence among them. Without His presence, they would be no different from any other nation. It was his awareness of this distinction that prompted Moses to pray:
And he said unto him, If your presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and your people have found grace in your sight? is it not in that you go with us? so shall we be separated, I and your people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. SHEMOTH (EXODUS) 33:15-16 את CEPHER
In response the Most High assured Moses that His presence would go with them. We can ask the same question about Kingdom communities. What will distinguish us from other peoples and cultural groups on Earth if it is not the active and powerful presence of Yah in our everyday lives and activities?
Along with the preserving power of Yah, Hebrews have survived throughout the centuries as a distinct people because of their strong sense of community. If a Hebrew is financially broke, the community will come together and give him money to start a business so he won’t be broke any longer. Hebrew businessmen go to Hebrew attorneys for their legal work. Hebrew mothers take their babies to Hebrew pediatricians. Hebrew bakers get their flour from Hebrew mills. There is nothing prejudicial in this. They simply know that they are part of a community and live accordingly. They know that if they band together, everybody prospers.
Why don’t believers and followers of Hamachiach do the same? We have no sense of community. We are splintered by race and religion and by economics and ethnic background. Sometimes we are divided by pure jealousy. We are so caught up in the “every man for himself” mentality of the world that we won’t take our business to a fellow believer because our attitude is, “I’m not going to help make him rich.” That is foolishness.
Brothers and sisters, as Kingdom citizens, we are a community, and we are dependent on one another. We bear mutual responsibility for each other’s welfare, success, and prosperity. The New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the early Hebrews saw themselves as a community as much as they saw themselves as individual believers. They shared common property so that no one went without. They distributed food to the needy and took care of widows and orphans. When the mostly Hebrew church in Jerusalem was impoverished by persecution, Gentile churches throughout Asia Minor gave sacrificially, sometimes out of their own poverty, to bring relief to their Hebrew brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.
We have somehow forgotten a truth that the early believers took to heart: united we stand, but divided we fall. The first- century church faced a world hostile to their message—in many ways as hostile as today’s world is toward “Christianity”—yet they turned their world upside down in spite of it. How? In the power of the Spirit of Yah, certainly. But also because they banded together as a community, regardless of how far apart they were geographically. They took care of each other out of love and because they knew that no one else in this world would do it.
There is no logical reason why we could not do the same today. How hard would it be for a community of believers to commit together to support one another in every arena of life? Born-again business people would take their legal work to born-again attorneys. Believers with medical needs would consult born-again physicians. Believers would support believers, patronizing each others’ businesses, pharmacies, grocery stores, bakeries, barber shops, beauty shops, gas stations, restaurants, building contractors, banks, and consulting, architectural, investment counseling, health care, dental, and optometry services, and the like. Some communities already publish directories of local and regional businesses and services owned by believers for this very purpose, but the practice needs to become much more widespread.
This does not mean that as Kingdom citizens we should separate ourselves from unbelievers. After all, how will they learn about the Kingdom unless we are around to tell them? But as we go among them day by day, we must never forget that we are not independent, but part of an interdependent community. The New Testament church had a strong sense of community, but they also reached out to the unbelieving world around them. There is no reason why we cannot do the same.
A HIGHER STANDARD
Scripture leaves no doubt that Yah’s desire is to build a community of His people on Earth. Isaac, before sending his son Jacob to live with his mother’s people, blessed him with these words: “And El Shaddai bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a multitude of people; BERE'SHIYTH (GENESIS) 28:3 את CEPHER.
Years later, in fulfillment of Isaac’s blessing, Yah Himself promised Jacob:
And Elohiym said unto him, I am El Shaddai: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of you, and kings shall come out of your loins; And the land which I gave Avraham and Yitschaq, to you I will give it, and to your seed after you will I give the land. BERE'SHIYTH (GENESIS) 35:11-12 את CEPHER.
Again, many years later, Jacob told his son Joseph about Yah’s promise:
“And Ya`aqov said unto El-Yoceph, El Shaddai appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Kena`an, and blessed me, And said unto me, Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people; and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession. BERE'SHIYTH (GENESIS) 48:3-4 את CEPHER.
This promise of Yah to Jacob was fulfilled with the creation of the nation of Israel. As Kingdom citizens and members of the ekklesia of Yahusha Hamachiach, we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Israelite nation, so the promise is for us as well. This is doubly true because Yah’s purpose never changes, and He has always purposed to build a community of His people on Earth.
But if we are going to become a Kingdom community, we must commit ourselves to a higher standard than that of the rest of the world. If we are going to represent Yah, our King, on Earth, we must hold to standards that faithfully represent Him and reflect His character. We need to heed Paul’s wise counsel: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. GALATIYM (GALATIANS) 6:10 את CEPHER. Yah wants to bless us, but to be blessed we must obey His Word and live according to His standards. Yah wants to bless us, but His purpose in blessing us is to make us a community that will reach out and draw others in.
This is why in our Kingdom community there must be no hint of evil, dishonesty, corruption, selfishness, greed, or envy. The world is full of these things, and people are looking for something different. Besides, when we live this way, we reflect the character of our Most High, which is what we are after. Simon Peter, one of Hamachiach ’s apostles, provides a vivid picture of what the life and character of a Kingdom community and its citizens should look like:
According as his divine power has given unto us all things את that pertain unto life and holiness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience holiness; And to holiness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Adonai Yahusha Ha'Mashiach. But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Adonai and Savior Yahusha Ha'Mashiach. KEPHA SHENIY (2 PETER) 1:3-11 את CEPHER.
As a Kingdom community, we are held to a higher standard than that of the world. Religious communities often adapt and conform to the world’s standards, which is one reason they are such a mess. Kingdom communities, on the other hand, do not accommodate; they elevate. They hold out the standards of the King without compromise and elevate to that level all who enter. That’s the only way it can be.
COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY
One characteristic that distinguishes a Kingdom community from any other is that in a Kingdom community sins may be personal, but never private. The actions of one affect the whole. For the sake of the health and welfare of the community, Yah laid out a radical solution:
But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahuah: the water of separation has not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean. BEMIDBAR (NUMBERS) 19:20 את CEPHER.
Sanctuary means the place where Yah lives. In a Kingdom community, Yah lives in His people, and the whole community is the palace of the Governor. Anyone who becomes a cancer to the body of the community must be cut off for the good of the community.
This may be a hard statement for many of us to accept, because we are so accustomed to hearing how loving Yah is, and how forgiving, kind and merciful, and tender He is. All these things are true, but they are beside the point. Yah certainly loves everyone, even the offenders, but His love and commitment to His community are so great that He will take radical steps to prevent it from being infected and destroyed from within. This is why Achan was stoned to death for violating Yah’s ban on taking spoils from Jericho (see Josh. 7:25-26). This is why Paul commanded the Corinthian church to expel the incestuous member from its midst (see 1 Cor. 5:1-13).
This is why Ananias and Sapphira died for lying to the Holy Spirit (see Acts 5:1-11). The Most High is jealous for His community and will do whatever He must to protect it and preserve its integrity.
Even worldly communities separate offenders by putting them in jail. How much more should we expect Yah to protect the purity of His community? The difference is that worldly communities lock offenders away to keep them from continually breaking the law, but those communities have no sense of sharing responsibility for the offenders’ actions. In a Kingdom community, everyone bears responsibility for the actions of everyone else.
By the same token, in a Kingdom community, everyone bears one another’s burdens. Paul said:
BRETHREN, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such one in the ruach of meekness; considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the Torah of Mashiach. GALATIYM (GALATIANS) 6:1-2 את CEPHER.
While Paul tells us to restore an offender “gently,” it may be necessary first to separate that person from the community for a time until he or she responds to the Holy Spirit’s prompting and repents.
In a Kingdom community, Kingdom citizens have no independent life. This is a particularly hard concept to grasp for those who have grown up under democratic and capitalistic systems where personal independence is regarded as one of the highest values of all. As Kingdom citizens, we are all in this together. We need each other. We are all members of one body, and every member is vital for the proper functioning of that body. That is why an “illness” that infects one of us infects all of us. And that is why we cannot afford to ignore or write off any member of the community.
If any of us are going to represent Heaven, all of us must represent Heaven. If your brother in the Most High is weak, it is your responsibility to help strengthen him. If your sister in the Most High is going through a struggle, call her and say, “Honey, stay strong. I am with you, and so is the Most High. Don’t compromise. We’re together in this.” Then pray with her. We must all help each other be strong in order to protect everybody and preserve the integrity of the community.
And Yah’s promise is that if His Kingdom citizens live right, He will give them “diplomatic immunity”: immunity from sickness, disease, poverty. The entire community will prosper, and everyone outside will want to know why. “How come everybody got fired except you?” “Well, I have diplomatic immunity.” “How come everybody else’s business is shutting down, but yours is prospering?” “I have diplomatic immunity.” “Why did my crop fail but yours didn’t?” “I have diplomatic immunity.” “How can you be doing so well when the economy is in such bad shape?” “I have diplomatic immunity.” “How can you be so calm, so at peace, and so joyful when the world is going to hell in a hand basket?” “I have diplomatic immunity.”
The world can’t help but be attracted to a Kingdom community that lives like the Kingdom whose name it bears, because there is nothing else in the world like it. That is why we must be so careful to live with integrity and without compromise and to strike the proper balance between being in the world as a community of believers, but not of the world. We cannot reach the world with the message of the Kingdom if we shut ourselves off from the world. We must relate to the world through the Kingdom principle of engagement.
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